You can see the revolutionary implications of advances in molecular biology everywhere these days: in the gold-rush fever surrounding biotechnology, the pop-press hysteria over cloning, and the mounting hype about the Human Genome Project. But less obvious is the revolution that the science itself is undergoing.
That revolution is what the Molecular Sciences Institute, directed by renowned geneticist Sydney Brenner, is all about: finding alternatives to the way molecular biology's been done for the last 50 years, so that it can survive its own success.
Just in the last decade, new technologies for gathering biological information have made it reasonable to expect complete inventories of molecular components like genes, RNAs, and proteins in cells, explains Roger Brent, the Institute's associate director. "Eventually, we will have collected all we can collect. But we still won't be able to predict biological behavior. We need new insights, new science, and technology to illuminate the landscape created by our own research."
The Institute is looking for a computer scientist to continue work on a database of protein-protein interactions - and more significantly, to help develop new computational tools and analytical models to extract information from the data. The job offers the opportunity to be trained in biology by some of its leading minds, and to train them, in turn, about computer science. "In other words," explains Roger, "it's a chance to shape the way biology is done in the 21st century. Whatever the computational biology of function may look like, we're going to be developing it here."
Pretty grandiose ambitions - but the Institute, founded in 1977 and located in the heart of downtown Berkeley, already has a reputation for doing good work. Although it functions as an independent nonprofit, the Institute has excellent ties to the genomic industry as well as to academia. It's close to the biological research program at the University of California, Berkeley, and recruits young UC whizzes from other disciplines like computational biology or computer science for cross-pollination. "I'd say our place is effectively sharper, more learned and more literate than the average Silicon Valley start-up," says Roger. "And then if we feel dull," he adds, "we just bop out onto the street and there we are, with the incense sellers and the 16-year-old Goth kids on skateboards, and the buzz comes right back."
Buzz drives the Institute, where people tend, like Roger, to be conscious of their own and their colleagues' brilliance, and are convinced of the pioneering nature of their work. Somehow, though, it's not smug or self-important. There's a happy, reckless, can't-stop-talking-we're-on-the-brink-of-amazing-discoveries tone to the place. The scientists are enthusiastic about intellectual exploration, and seem to thrive on challenging, admiring, and showing off for each other. For additional amusement, notes Roger, "we all go over to San Francisco to some fancy restaurant and try for a serious assault on its wine cellar while talking science."
High IQ is definitely expected of candidates for this job - but wit, irreverence, and the ability to work with colleagues from different disciplines are just as important. Graduate-level or work-related database experience is essential. The salary's US$40,000 to 60,000, and staff members benefit from a generous intellectual property policy. Find out more at www.molsci.org, and send your curricula vitae with letters of reference to Roger Brent, Associate Director, The Molecular Sciences Institute, 2168 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley, CA 94704. You can also email the institute at recruitment@molsci.org
About the Molecular Sciences Institute:
Location: Berkeley, CA
Salary: $40,000 - 60,000
Skills: High IQ is definitely expected of candidates for this job - but wit, irreverence, and the ability to work with colleagues from different disciplines are just as important. Graduate-level or work-related database experience is essential.
This article originally appeared on HotWired.
